SONY NEX-5 (39mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO250)
I got my Fuji X100 in September 2011 but it became my most used camera in that year. Even more impressive when you consider that it had the sticky aperture blade – problem, needed to be sent to Germany for repair and missed a trip to Moscow.
It was also by far my most used camera in 2012 but I doubt that it will be my most used camera in 2013 and the reason is simple: I got myself the Fuji X-Pro 1 for Christmas. Continue reading
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.2, 1/60 sec, ISO800)
Small is beautiful. Less is more. Reduce to the max, Simple life….. We all know about the magic of reduction. Since the economy crises started about 4 years ago reduction is everywhere. It’s almost a kind of hype. Even they still very rich talk about reduction. Of course most of the time they are praying water and drinking wine. But it seems that they don’t feel as comfortable showing their wealth as they did before. Before you blame me to be a socialist living in a nice house on the hill I will stop here.
As much as the magic of reduction is hyped most of the time less means just less. It’s the same with cameras. Less is just less. Continue reading
SONY NEX-5 (45mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO200)
Camera reviews today:
At the beginning camera reviews on the internet were a great source of information. The biggest advantage of these reviews was that they were totally unbiased. Just take a look at magazines. A substantial part of their profit comes from advertising. Someone needs to be a real naive person if he expects a critical review of a product of a company that places big ads in the magazine. You just don’t bite the hand that feeds you. On the internet it was different. But it seems that’s not the case any more. Today most reviews are at least very positive and some just read like they were written by the marketing department of the camera maker. But why is that? Why are simple users or reviewers not unbiased anymore? I think there are two reasons: Continue reading
DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/1.8, 1/500 sec, ISO125)
A picture of a cat? If you are a regular visitor of camera gear forums like dpreview you know that there is only one reason: Some serious testing of new gear. 😉
I always shot compact cameras beside my SLRs and DSLRs. My favorite small camera of all times was a Contax T2. Continue reading
Part II deals with AF, overall performance and handling.
Let’s start with:
1. AF ( autofocus )
Both are no real AF heroes but they are completely different. The NEX feels snappier, has more AF points active at the same time and has face detection. AF is best with the 16mm or with the 18-55 kit lens on the wide end. Zoom in and AF get’s slower and in low contrast situations there is focus hunting. But AF is good enough for everything but action and reliable most of the time. Sometimes it misses for no reason and you got an out of focus shot.
NEX-5 (55mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO200)
This is not an example as focus is spot on ( on the remains of a dead insect on the windscreen ) but an out of focus shot looks similar to that. But the NEX is fast enough to shot images while driving. I guess that the NEX 6 AF is vastly improved because of the on sensor phase detection. If the Alaska video is real it is able to track a low flying plane. We will see.
The Fuji is different. Continue reading